On October 19, U.S. Coast Guard Captain J. Scott Paradis, Captain of the Port of Morgan City, presented a letter from Rear Admiral Mary Landry to recognize Canal Barge Company on achieving 100% compliance with the Towing Vessel Bridging Program (TVBP). The U.S. Coast Guard announced on October 6, all 23 Canal Barge Company vessels were awarded Uninspected Towing Vessel (UTV) decals. The decals signify a vessel has satifactorily completed the voluntary examination process through the TVBP. Canal Barge is proud to of our onboard mariners and our Operations Team that proactively led this voluntary program to completion for our fleet to ensure we always move with confidence.

On September 29, 2010, ConocoPhillips honored Canal Barge Company with their 2010 award for “Outstanding Operational Performance” at the second annual Conoco Carrier Conference in Houston, TX.

ConocoPhillips has been a valued customer of CBC for over 20 years, and our relationship is bigger and stronger than ever. We started moving Conoco lube oil in 1989 (from Lake Charles to Hartford, IL) and progressively grew this business over the years. In recent years, we have performed Deck Cargo Services work for Conoco, most notably the expansion of their Wood River, IL refinery. We have stored their asphalt at our Terminal since 2003, and we have also moved Conoco’s pet coke in our hopper barges. ConocoPhillips is the first customer to maintain regular business across all of our lines of operations. And of course, we added the Gulf Unit mariners and equipment in late 2007 to our operations.

It is truly an honor that our professional mariners and shoreside staff have earned this recognition from one of our most valued customers. Clearly, they know that when they entrust their cargo’s to CBC they can “Move with Confidence.”

Canal Terminal Company (CTC), a subsidiary of Canal Barge Company, has announced the start of construction on a new dedicated tank truck/tank car direct transfer facility at its bulk liquid storage and handling facility in Joliet, IL. CTC has become a recognized leader in the Chicago area for the storage and handling of a wide variety of hazardous and non-hazardous liquid products. Over the past 10 years, the facility has grown to include over 545,000 bbls (22,890,000 gals) of liquid storage, 3 barge docks, 4 rail spurs 5 truck scales, 1 tank car scale and an on-site laboratory facility. According to Merritt Lane, President/CEO of Canal Barge Company, “the addition of this direct transfer facility will further enhance and support Canal Terminal Company’s position as a premium provider of bulk liquid handling services in the greater Chicago area”. CTC is served via the CSXT.

Once completed, Canal’s new direct transfer facility will allow for products to be transferred directly between tank cars and tank trucks, bypassing the need for storage. All transfer lines will be constructed of stainless steel, and products will be transferred utilizing either nitrogen gas pressure or dedicated pumps. Tank trucks will be loaded directly on a covered 90’ truck scale allowing for multiple compartment loading without the need to pull on and off the scale. Should product heating be required, CTC can provide either hot oil or hot water, depending on the individual requirements. In order to maximize the functionality of the facility, CTC will provide for all intra-plant rail car switching by means of a multi-car capacity rail mover.

Planning for the new facility began over a year ago when it became clear that the overall economic conditions were negatively impacting the ability for various chemical producers and users to source material into the Chicago area in a cost efficient manner. Per Del Wilkins, Canal VP Development and Operations, “we recognized that several of our best customers were delaying, or even canceling, plans to deliver product into storage due to the under-performing economy. Our job at CTC is to find solutions that promote growth, whether by adding new facilities or by assisting our customers with bundled services. Our new direct transfer facility will help those companies unable, at present, to support dedicated tankage.” Over time, CTC is confident many of their direct transfer customers will move into dedicated storage facilities.

Canal Terminal Company is widely recognized as a premium provider of storage services in the Chicago area. CTC employs the latest in technology, including automated handling systems and sophisticated product measuring and monitoring devices. In addition, they pride themselves on superior environmental, safety and regulatory programs. According to Wilkins, “prospective customers of our new facility can rest assured that we will offer the same exacting standards for safety and regulatory compliance that we adhere to at our primary storage facility. We are confident that the systems and operational support we intend to provide will quickly differentiate Canal Terminal Company from its peers.”

For additional information contact Jim Lacy @ 985-727-1840 (o), 504-495-2980 (c) or JLACY@canalterminal.com

In the August 9, 2010 issue of the Waterways Journal, retired Canal Barge Company Captain Simpson Kemp was interviewed for some insight into his storied history on the river. Capt. Kemp worked with Canal Barge for over 37 years and is revered on the river as one of the most versatile Captains in the industry. Below, is the full article, courtesy of the Waterways Journal.

Retired Towboat Captain Reminisces

Capt. Simpson Kemp, who grew up watching boats on the Tickfaw River, retired from Canal Barge Company, New Orleans, La., in January, ending a 54-year career on the river, 38 of which were with Canal Barge. He started working on boats when he was 15 and in eighth grade.
Speaking with Hannah Chotin of Canal, Kemp recalled that while he was on a trip with his father to Manchac, La., to sell a load of fish, he noticed a dredging boat and out of curiosity, asked the captain how he could get a job on the boat. The captain simply replied, “Get on that skiff.”
Kemp worked on the dredge boats until he was 18, at which time he traveled to Baton Rouge to find work on a “big boat.” He completed his GED 56 years later.
The “big boat,” he told his interviewer, was the mv. Harry Dyer, a Chotin Transportation vessel that ran from Exxon Baton Rouge to Exxon Pittsburgh. He was a deckhand hired by Capt. Jos. Chotin. The route took about one month round trip; they had to break tow at every lock. That’s when he knew he was hooked, he said. He stayed on the boat for two trips and off for one trip.
He worked for Chotin for 13 years, coming up through the ranks. He remembers seeing the mv. Irene Chotin, which was the first boat to transit the Port Allen Lock.
“Working on boats, you meet all kinds of people from all over the country,” he said. “The river gets in your blood and you can’t get away from it.”
When Midland bought Chotin Transportation in 1971, Simpson traveled to Natchez, Miss., to visit Canal Barge Company about career opportunities and ended up tripping for about a month before becoming a full time Canal pilot.
Kemp told Hannah Chotin, at the beginning of his career when taking a tow to Pittsburgh from Baton Rouge, it wasn’t possible to call the office until reaching Cairo. Also, there was no formal training then. The mate told you what to do and how to do it. He remembered when he was a relatively new captain on the mv. Cypress, he attempted to turn on the radar (a huge WW II model) as the winter night was getting very dark. His supervising captain quickly asked him, “What are you doing? We only use that thing in the fog!”
When computers were added to the boat, Kemp said, he was actually scared of what the change would mean, but he gradually learned the programs and came to realize that they are ultimately tools to help make the waterways safer.
“You have to make sure up-and-coming pilots and captains don’t rely solely on the computer. Often, when I supervise a green captain or pilot, I make them go without the help of a computer for a bit and coach as they drive. That’s the best way to let them learn. They have to trust their senses,” he said.
Kemp said the entire river system is in much better shape today, thanks to the Corps of Engineers and Coast Guard. The locks and dams are more efficient and the navigational safety is much improved. It is better environmentally, too, he said, recalling the days when you’d need a tetanus shot if you fell into the river in the Chicago area.
Living conditions on the boat have changed significantly, he said. The mv. Codrington had no air conditioning and was very noisy. He has seen boats refurbished with soundproofing, black-out shutters and many more advances to ensure the crewmembers have a better quality of life onboard. The regular upkeep of the boats is now to higher standards to ensure better living conditions.
“In the 1990s, we moved Army equipment on barges and the last move I was involved with had 16 barges in the tow; it looked like a giant, floating parking lot. Other captains on the river would ask, ‘Where you goin’ with all that military equipment?’ and I’d reply, ‘This isn’t military equipment; I’m just seriously going to the hunting camp!’”
From then on, river folks called him the “deer hunter,” he said.

Courtesy of the Waterways Journal

In the August 9, 2010, issue of the Waterways Journal, Merritt Lane, President and CEO of Canal Barge Company, offered insight into the challenges of responding to a hurricane threat for inland marine operators in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and ensuing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Below are excerpts of the article, courtesy of the Waterways Journal.

Bonnie Offered Test of Hurricane Plans
By Capt. Richard Eberhardt

High altitude winds sheared off the top of Tropical Storm Bonnie, reducing it to a relatively minor weather event that mostly affected the offshore vessels working with the Deepwater Horizon cleanup and delayed capping of the blown out BP well for about a week, as drill ships had to disconnect pipes to the Gulf of Mexico floor.
“We never made it to Condition Zulu,” said Capt. Ed Stanton, commander of Sector New Orleans. Port operations are shut down at Condition Zulu, which is declared when hurricane-force winds are expected within 12 hours. The sector did get to Condition Yankee, in which gale-force winds were expected within 24 hours….
Canal Barge was [a] company that began to gear up for the storm, and then used it as a training exercise as it did not develop into a full-blown hurricane.
Merritt Lane, Canal Barge president and chief executive officer, said Bonnie “did give Canal Barge an opportunity to exercise our storm preparedness and response plan. Canal Barge Company is confident in our ability to respond appropriately during a hurricane threat, and we started tracking the storm while it was still in the Atlantic Ocean.”
Lane said Canal Barge “implemented a measured response to make sure we were prepared for a major storm, and we stood down once it became clear that Bonnie would not be a threat.”
With the upgrade of the Industrial Canal Lock, flood protection work on the Intracoastal Waterway, and the additional equipment being used in response and cleanup of the BP oil spill, Lane said he was expecting congestion in the New Orleans area.
“While we did encounter 24-plus hour delays at the Industrial Canal (IHNC Lock) it was not significantly longer than wait times during construction,” Lane added. “We look forward to the completion of the Industrial Canal lock to help move traffic more quickly through the New Orleans area, both in response to storm threats as well as during normal times.”
Canal Barge did have barges on charter to others along the Gulf Coast in the track of the storm, with an initial plan to move all this equipment northward toward Larose on the GIWW, “but when it became clear that the storm would not be a severe event, this equipment was moved north of Grand Isle to stand by and wait for the storm to pass,” Lane said.

Courtesy of the Waterways Journal

In the July 26, 2010 issue of the Waterways Journal, Merritt Lane, President and CEO of Canal Barge Company offered insight into the effect of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and ensuing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to inland marine operators. Below are excerpts of the article, courtesy of the Waterways Journal.

Spill Has Little Effect On Inland Firms
By Capt. Richard Eberhardt
Representatives of towing companies and ports along the inland waterways are finding the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the resulting moratorium imposed by the Interior Department on deepwater offshore drilling, has had very little effect on their business.
Major ports along the Gulf Coast report no noticeable change in the arrival of vessels. The Port of New Orleans, which is just west of the spill location, has had only two vessels arrive requiring cleaning—a ship and a tug and barge from offshore, said spokesman Chris Bonura.
The ports of Mobile and Pascagoula, which have seen nearby barrier island beaches oiled, remain open as well. To the west, the deepwater ports of Houston/Galveston, Lake Charles, Port Arthur and Freeport are unaffected, although tar balls that were found in Houston were reported to have “hitchhiked” on the bottom of an offshore barge.
As of July 20, only Pensacola and Biloxi Bay are closed during flood (incoming) tides, but opened during ebb (outgoing) tides, according to the Incident Command Center’s Trade and Carrier Support Group, Executive Summary No. 47.
No Inland Impact
“As we operate primarily in the inland waterways, the oil spill thus far has not impacted Canal Barge Company’s daily operations in any significant way,” said Merritt Lane, president and chief executive officer. “We have, however, about 60 deck barges supporting spill response operations. Canal Barge Company deck barges are working to protect Barataria Bay, Mississippi Sound, and the Mobile area from the spill.”

Several other companies have supplied hopper barges that are pulled across some of the waterways to stop the oil from reaching the fragile marshlands. Barges strung end-to-end have proven to be much better at stopping the oil than floating booms, which are largely ineffective when the wind kicks up waves of any significance.
A 40-barge barrier is stretched across the Rigolets area of eastern New Orleans protecting Lake Pontchartrain.
Several of his company’s barges have been involved in cleanup operations, Lane said, and others have moved several fabricated components to support the capping and containment operation.
“We have also adjusted our hurricane planning in response to the unusually large amount of equipment operating along the Gulf Coast in support of the cleanup,” Lane added. “As this equipment would need to move through the New Orleans area in the event of a hurricane threat to southeast Louisiana, we are planning for more of our own horsepower to help evacuate and secure our equipment….”
Long-Term Effects
But while there has been little effect on the inland waterways so far, Turn Services President Frank Morton is looking at the long-term impact. Turn Services operates towboats, full-service fleets and launch boats in service to Associated Terminals, which handles stevedoring and midstream ship loading and unloading operations of deep-draft vessels.
“There are so many things that have an impact on our business that I cannot say what kind of effect the oil spill/drilling moratorium has had so far on our business,” Morton said.
“I am sure that if the drilling moratorium remains it will have effect because of the amount of pipe used in drilling, pipe used in pipelines, the pipe coating raw materials, raw materials for drilling mud, etc.—much of this material is moved by barge,” he cautioned.
Lane agreed, saying that “looking longer-term, if the moratorium stays in place it will have a severely negative impact on the Gulf Coast region’s economy and inevitably hurt those companies that provide oilfield services or move cargoes related to those activities.”
Brenda Levinson, deputy port director at the Port of Shreveport-Bossier, said some are watching the number of barges being used in the cleanup.
“We understand that barges are being pulled into service to assist with the spill—potentially cutting down the number available for loading of goods, however, according to Hugh McConnell, Director of Operations, there has been no adverse impact for the Port of Shreveport-Bossier at this time….”

Courtesy of the Waterways Journal

The Deepwater Horizon spill has been a disaster of unprecedented scope that, clearly, no one was prepared for — a massive fire with fatalities, a search and rescue mission followed by a sinking and subsequent massive oil spill. This has been a tragic incident, with major implications for the environment, people, and economy of the Gulf Coast.  It will be studied for decades by management and safety professionals to prevent such things from happening in the future. 

In light of this spill, I would like to take this opportunity to reinforce Canal Barge Company’s commitment to doing business right — we will never sacrifice safety for expediency or a quick buck.

There have also clearly been problems with the spill response. At CBC, we firmly believe in early and accurate incident reporting, and an emergency response effort that can be adaptable to large-scale incidents. We recognize that it is always better to overreact and then pull back, rather than to under-react and hope for the best.

New laws and regulations will be forthcoming as a result of the spill and the response — some that are necessary and appropriate, and some that are the result of regulatory overkill.  For example, our industry, which had no connection whatsoever to the Deepwater Horizon incident, is now threatened with attacks on the Jones Act and other laws that govern our domestic maritime industry. We also face increased insurance requirements for oil spills from our vessels, despite the fact that current limits are more than adequate for the quantities and material we carry. Needless to say, we will engage in the debate and push for smarter laws and regulations and against rules that do not make good sense for business or for the safety and protection of people or the environment.

Many of us live in the Gulf region and are no doubt concerned about the impact of this spill on our livelihoods and way of life. These concerns are legitimate, and it is far too early to tell what the long-term environmental impact will be on the Gulf of Mexico and our communities. We can each do our part to support cleanup efforts.

Unfortunately, President Obama has made our region’s recovery more difficult by his decision to put a 6-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf. I believe that this is wrong path because it will harm one of the major economic drivers of the Gulf region for the short- and long-term without a clear improvement in safety. It is insightful that the moratorium was implemented against the advice of our government’s own safety experts. If you are so inclined, please take the time to contact your elected officials to voice your concerns on this issue. Click here for the contact information of your Congressional delegation.

As you know, our entire way of life is built on productive relationships among our economic, recreational and cultural needs along the Gulf Coast. We have sacrificed much and contributed much for the benefit of our fellow Americans. Our region should be more fairly compensated in the future through increased royalties that can then be used to restore the wetlands and to better protect America’s energy infrastructure along the Gulf Coast.

I want to assure you that CBC’s operation is thus far largely unaffected by the oil spill and that we are doing our part to respond to this unfortunate situation. As a member of the New Orleans Business Council, I am working with a coalition to seek to overturn or modify President Obama’s moratorium, as well as to seek funding to assist our tourism economy. Additionally, CBC has assisted in the oil spill response by providing marine equipment and advice to the Incident Command team. CBC representatives will also play a role on the State of Louisiana’s Master Plan for Coastal Restoration that is being put in place as a result of the Deepwater Horizon spill and the country’s renewed understanding of our area’s national significance.

Canal Barge Company’s response to the oil spill is consistent with our Business Philosophy of safe and environmentally-responsible operations, as well as being engaged in a positive way in community and industry affairs.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Merritt

Canal Barge Company supports national efforts to restore the Gulf Coast in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.  To show your support for Gulf Coast Restoration efforts, check out the ‘Be the One’ campaign launched by the Women of the Storm at www.restorethegulf.com.   There is a video to view, as well as an online petition that states, ‘I demand that a plan to restore American’s Gulf be fully funded and implemented for me and future generations.’

The Chamber of Shipping of America (CSA) presented a Ship Safety Award to CBC Captain Katherine Chaplin and her crew of the MV CAROLINE at the Ship Safety Achievement Annual Awards Luncheon  June 3, 2010. 

On August 10, 2009, the MV CAROLINE, with a tow of 5 barges on the ICWW near Texas City, TX, was hit from behind by another boat pushing the lead barge up onto the stern of the MV CAROLINE and causing the boat to sink up to the galley. Captain Chaplin had just finished her watch when the incident occurred. She quickly assembled the crew and made preparations to deploy the skiff. As the overtaking tow pushed the stern of the MV CAROLINE down, the generators necessary for deploying the skiff were flooded. Captain Chaplin then determined the crew should abandon ship and move to the barges for safety. Captain Chaplin’s primary concern was the health and safety of her crew. “Everyone stepped up to the task to ensure crew safety and minimal damage to the vessel and the environment they were in,” said Captain Chaplin. In total, the crew of the MV CAROLINE had over 40 years of service and they were able to handle the incident.

When it was clear all was safe, Captain Chaplin immediately turned her focus to the safety and protection of the environment, deploying mini-booms around the vessel to contain any leaks caused by the incident. This quick action by the crew ensured adherence to the highest standards of environmental protection. Captain Chaplin followed the procedures covered in the Emergency Response Training sessions CBC regularly conducts, and the appropriate parties were informed of the incident.

The quick thinking and proactive response of Captain Chaplin’s crew helped avoid any injuries to the crew, and helped minimize the environmental impact of this incident. Congratulations to Captain Chaplin and the crew of the MV CAROLINE for earning a 2009 Ship Safety Achievement Award.